Download the new Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3 and want to start earning those pesky achievements right away? Finding that elusive Sandbox Skull in the Sandbox map is no easy feat! It will leave you searching a sea of sand for hours and then dying from guardians for hours more. If you want to, you can skip the tears and claim it for yourself once and for all. See how after the jump.

Steps

1

Begin a Forge session on the Sandbox map. This can be done by selecting the Forge from the main menu and selecting the Sandbox map from the ones available. Gathering the Mythic skulls is infinitely easier when you are in a Forge session rather than Custom game.

2

Enter editor mode (or oracle form) by pressing UP on the D-Pad once you have begun play. Make sure that if you are not host, that the player who is has enabled all players to be able to enter editor mode.

3

Locate the area of the map where the skull is located. Go directly towards the edge of the map from the Red base on the middle level (the Red base is the one with the red orb of light above it); if you are facing in the correct direction you will see a setting sun and a half-submerged wall. The skull is in a dip between two sand dunes at the very base of the wall.

To find the skull easily, enter the Theater mode of Halo 3 and view the film from your session on Sandbox. When you press Y on your controller, it allows the camera to move freely and you can move over the boundary of the map without the worry of getting attacked by the guardians. Once you have found the skull you can return to Forge with a better knowledge of where to look.

4

Dodge the guardian's attacks in editor mode by using the thrust (pressing and holding the Left Trigger) and moving in vertical and horizontal lines once you have passed the boundary of the map. This becomes easier if you make players invulnerable to damage with 4X over-shields and 200% recharge rate - the guardians will still kill you, but it will make it harder for them to.

5

Decide which method of getting to the Sandbox skull you wish to use, as there are many. Some take longer than others, while some need the help from friends. Whatever the case, as soon as you cross over the boundary of the map, the guardians (or protectors of the map represented by tall sentry towers) will shoot at you with several laser beams with excellent aim. Here are some methods:

Spawn a teleport sender node somewhere on the middle of the map. Still in editor mode, spawn a receiver node and drag it as far towards the skull as possible. It will drop to the ground when you get killed by the guardians. When you re-spawn, spawn a bubble shield next to the teleport sender node and pick it up in player mode. Enter the teleporter and throw the bubble shield as soon as you come out of the teleport receiver node by pressing X on your controller. Once inside the bubble shield, enter editor mode again and spawn more bubble shields. In player mode, assuming you dropped the teleporter close to the skull, you should be able to form a path of bubble shields to the skull. A video of this method can be seen here on YouTube.

Using a similar technique to the one above, instead of bubble shields you can also use scenery pieces to block off the guardian's attacks. Large blocks, walls and shield doors are effective to form pathways between the teleport receiver node and the skull. It may take slightly longer, but will be more permanent than the bubble shields which will disappear over time. A video of this method can be seen here on YouTube.

Get two friends to hold objects such as shield doors or large blocks up to the guardian's lasers to block their attacks. This will buy you some time, although it will take a lot of skill and patience and team work between you and your friends.

Create a Tube Corner piece. Get inside the Tube Corner piece, then pick the piece up as the Monitor and fly to the skull. To make it to the skull easier, try having a friend stay in a safe spot and help navigate you to the skull.

By far the easiest way, although it is a shortcut, is to download an edited map which has the towers disabled or blocked off. You can download these map variants from a Bungie.net file share to your console. An example of one can be found here on Bungie.net.

A potentially hazardous way to acquire the skull is to effectively turn off the guardians by overloading the map. It is easy to perform, but the results from this are unreliable and can potentially harm your game experience if your Xbox 360 is prone to faults. Only attempt if you are skilled in the make up of Halo 3 maps. A video of this method is shown here on YouTube.

6

Change from editor mode back into player form (if you are not in it already) by pressing UP on the D-Pad again and pick up the skull by pressing the Right Bunker when prompted. Be careful not to get killed by the guardians before you claim it. Congratulations, you just found the Sandbox Skull!

7

Check your Xbox 360 gamerscore and achievement statistics and you will see that the Sandbox Skull achievement has been unlocked for 25 gamerscore. It is represented by a skull with an oracle image on its forehead.

Community Q&A

Video

Visual aid on how to get all three Mythic Skulls. Footage on how to get the Sandbox skull runs from 1:30 until 1:52, although this is only a brief look at the location of the skull. For an in-depth look at different methods of dealing with the guardians and claiming the skull, see the embedded links in the Steps section above.